How much fun do you have every day? Do you play every day or have you forgotten how to have fun? Would you play more if you knew it would boost your mood, creativity, reduce stress, and improve your relationships?
Welcome to this week’s episode of Your Freedom Unlimited where we’re speaking about one of our final master frequencies for creating more freedom, happiness and confidence in your life. This one is probably not what you might have expected – because this master frequency is all about fun and play.
What is a Master Frequency?
A Master Frequency is a term I’ve created to describe some specific, high vibration feelings or emotions that we can intentionally tap into at any time to raise our vibration, energy and mood. These Master Frequencies are the pre-cursers to all other good feelings.
Why is that so important?
Because the higher our vibration the greater energy and love we get to access in our life – to enjoy for ourselves and to share with others.
When we intentionally tap into the Master Frequencies we go to the whole next level in our lives – everything changes.
In the last few episodes, I’ve shared about the Master Frequencies we need to hold as consistently as possible in our lives. In Episode 19 we looked at Gratitude, Acceptance and Allowing in Episode 21, Trust in Ep 23, and Self worth in Episode 25, and Love in Episode 27.
The Master Frequency of Play and Fun
So today’s Master Frequency focuses on play and fun. Why is this a master frequency? When we’re in that real energy of fun and play – we immediately go to a place of joy and our vibe is higher.
And when our vibe is high great things happen – we can access our creativity and our inspiration and we feel more connected to ourselves and others. And this is where the magic is. If we really want to expand into who we truly are, into our purpose, then tapping into our creativity and new ideas is absolutely vital!!
The Science Behind Play
While we all know play brings fun and joy there’s a growing body of research that shows play is vital for problem solving, creativity and relationships.
American psychiatrist Stuart Brown, MD says plenty of play in childhood leads to happy, smart adults — and keeping it up can make us smarter at any age.
Dr Brown has spent decades studying play in people ranging from prisoners to businesspeople, artists to Nobel Prize winners. He’s reviewed over 8,000 “play histories,” case studies that explore the role of play in childhood and adulthood.
in his book Play, he compares play to oxygen “…it’s all around us, yet goes mostly unnoticed or unappreciated until it is missing.”
Dr. Brown is so passionate about the subject he’s founded the National Institute for Play. He’s also got a great Tedtalk on Play.
Six Reasons Why Play Is Good For Us?
So if you’re still feeling unsure about play let me share with you six reasons why play is so good for us:
1. We stop taking ourselves so seriously and become more relaxed, authentic and real
I’m not sure about you but I think I had become way too serious as an adult. I look back and I see how I got myself too locked up into how I and things around me should be. This seriousness was all about control, fear and safety. It kept me uptight and anxious. Today I see how stifling that whole situation was to me and others around me.
Now that I’ve purposely put more fun in my life I’m a lot more relaxed and life is much easier and more enjoyable. The beauty of play and fun is that we start to feel better inside ourselves.
Take yourself back to the last time you had a great laugh with someone. It felt great right? When we play we let our bodies – and our minds – have some freedom. It’s so energizing and so beautiful.
2. Play brings us into the moment – away from our worries and fears
When we play we immediately come into the present moment and feel more connected to ourselves. And as I’ve said before, being in the moment is where the magic is. This is where we access our connection to our Inner Selves and our Source energy. When we do this amazing things literally can happen – this is where we great ideas and inspirations for living our life.
Also when we’re in the moment our worry and anxiety reduces – because we’re not focusing on things in the past or future.
Painting and drawing is something I’ve found brings me completely into the moment. And I do not put pressure on myself to do it “perfectly”. I simply paint and draw for the love it. And I’ve found one of the things I love to do is to get my hands into the paint and do finger painting. It feels so good! Here is one of my paintings. A lot of this was done without a paintbrush!!!
3. Play boosts our creativity
When we’re in the frequency of play we’re in a completely different creative space, a space where opportunities and ideas can open up for us.
Have you ever found that when you’re in that fun and joyful space – doing something that doesn’t necessarily lead to anything – that some great ideas just pop into your head.
Neuroscience has found that when we’re doing something that does need a lot of effort, like cleaning our teeth, our brains are free to wander. What’s interesting here is that the research shows when a brain is “at rest” it isn’t really resting. Research from Radboud University has found that our brain’s “default mode network,” becomes more active at rest and that there is a link between the default mode network and creativity. In a nutshell – the mind-wandering or daydreaming we might do while at rest, or play, allows different ideas from our subconscious to come into our conscious awareness.
Harvard psychologist Dr Shelley Carson has found in her research that distractions may boost creativity and improve success. She found “high lifetime creative achievers” were less likely to screen out distractions – and more likely to use them to their advantage.
Apparently, if Einstein got stuck with a problem he would play the violin. His sister, Maja, said that sometimes after playing, he’d get up and say, “There, now I’ve got it.”
4. Play boosts our energy and helps us feel young
Play boosts our energy. Why? Because when we’re playing we drop all of our resistance, fear and need for control. Those negative energies cannot exist in the same space as play. So when we are not running those negative frequencies or energies in our systems we have so much energy left over.
When we have a few moments of play we can feel so refreshed and ready to go back to our work, parenting, study or whatever we need to do. The good news is this refreshed energy helps us to become more productive and more creative inside whatever we are doing.
And when we’re feeling great we feel more vital and alive … just as we did as children.
George Bernard Shaw said it best: “We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.”
5. Play improves our relationships
When we play and have fun we’re laughing and in the energy of love. When we’re in that space we do not need anything from anyone else! In that energy of course our relationships improve. I often think of that old saying – those that play together stay together and it is so true!
6. We feel happier and more free
All of these reasons are important but, for me, this last reason is vital. When we play every day we feel happier and more free. Why? Because building fun into our day today means we’re not putting our life on hold. We’re not waiting for some far off time – when the big work project is finished, the house is paid off, or the kids are educated – to finally have some fun.
Playing every day gives us a fresh lease on life now rather than waiting for some far off time to have fun.
I know that for a long time I used to work, work, work thinking that once I’ve done all this work, or hit a certain milestone, then I could have some down time or get to go on a holiday and have some fun.
To be frank it’s quite a drag to live life like that. It’s not living life the way we’re really meant to live it.
If we choose intentionally to have fun and joy, every day, then we become lighter within ourselves. We’re no longer waiting for that far off time to feel good or to have fun.
These are just six benefits – I’m sure there many more! The big question is have I convinced you about the power of play yet? I hope so!
How to Build More Fun and Play Into Your Day?
So how do we build more fun and play into our days?
Ideally, this is about doing something every day purely for the joy of it – for no other reason!
For me this is doing some yoga, some journaling or some art. I love working with color and paints. I also have fun playing with our dog Lucy or taking her for a walk – because I love nature and I see how much joy she is having in nature!!
So here I’m talking about you carving out ten to 15 minutes every day to do something for the joy of it. It could be drawing, singing, playing an instrument, writing, sewing, crafting – anything that is fun for you.
One of my clients has just discovered the joy of woodwork so we’ve built this into her weekly routine because she sees how much value she gets out of it across her business and personal life.
Also to be very clear the play research shows that connecting with technology is not play – so we need to leave screens and social media behind. Scrolling your feed is not technically considered fun or play.
Remember How You Played as a Kid
If you’re still stumped for ideas think back to the things you loved doing as a child.
WhenI was a child I loved swimming, bike riding, horse riding, and running under the sprinkler on a hot summer’s day. I grew up on a farm so I also loved walking down the road after a big thunderstorm and jumping in the puddles and getting completely muddy! (I don’t think my mother loved that!)
This is where not taking ourselves seriously comes in!! What’s stopping us from doing those things we loved as a kid now?
So, make a list of things that you can do – and do them.
On the weekend I had this beautiful and unexpected opportunity to go with friends to an alpaca farm. As I said I grew up on a farm, and I absolutely love animals. Last weekend we were invited to go to a winery that has alpacas for people to literally hang out with while they picnic at the winery.
We didn’t hire an alpaca but I got the chance to pet these gorgeous alpacas. It was so joyful to be in their presence, and it took me back to being a kid and connecting in that moment with these beautiful animals. Taking the chance to touch their wool and look into their eyes was so unexpected and so much fun.
The other thing I did on the weekend was to go to the beach and swim in the ocean. It’s Spring here so the ocean was still pretty chilly, so to keep warm I did what I used to do as a little girl. I jumped up and down in the waves and dove into the waves as I used to when I was little. It was simple fun that energised me for the rest of the day.
Over To You
So over to you to make your list and commit to having a little bit of play and fun every day in your life.
You’ll be amazed at what comes out of it. Imagine feeling more:
- Authentic and lighthearted
- In the moment
- Creative
- Energised – so you can do those other things you need to do in your life
- Connected to others
- Happy and free – not waiting for some far off time to have fun – you’ll be doing it now
So write your list and make a commitment to yourself. I’d love you to share how you go with me in the comments.
As ever please subscribe, rate and review Your Podcast and share this episode with someone you feel would love it!
Until we speak again take great care and lots of love!
Jen xoxo
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